The PGA Tour confirmed the addition of two more tournaments and that it was moving the WGC-Match Play Championship to a week before the Players Championship as it announced its schedule for the coming season on Wednesday.
The sport’s most lucrative circuit starts in early October and is now to host 47 tournaments, up from 45, yet still finds a space in the calendar to reinstate a week’s break in the end-of-season playoffs after it was removed from this year’s schedule.
The Sanderson Farms Championship returns to the schedule with a new venue after a one-season absence, now to be contested from Nov. 6 at the Country Club of Jackson in Mississippi, the same week as the WSG-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
It was last held during the same week as The Open last year, a slot that will now be occupied by the new Barbasol Championship (July 16-19) at the Robert Trent Jones Trail’s Grand National Lake Course near Opelika, Alabama.
The WGC-Match Play has shifted from February to April 30 and is to be played at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, pushing the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, to the week after The Players.
The US Open is to be held for the first time at Chambers Bay in Washington, The Open is to be played at St Andrews, Scotland, and the PGA Championship is to be held at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
The playoffs will feature a bye week in the middle of the four-tournament race for the FedEx Cup.
The 2014-2015 season tees off with the Frys.com Open in Napa, California, from Oct. 9 and concludes with the Tour Championship in Atlanta from Sept. 24 next year.
“After the successful debut of our wraparound schedule this season, we have another very strong schedule for 2014-2015 that will provide excitement for our fans and additional playing opportunities for our members,” PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement.
“We look forward to the return of the Sanderson Farms Championship and are very pleased to welcome the Barbasol Championship to the PGA Tour. We are also excited about the Match Play Championship being played at TPC Harding Park before the passionate golf fans in the San Francisco area,” he added.
The biennial Presidents Cup is to take place after the conclusion of the PGA Tour season, to be held for the first time in South Korea at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon from Oct. 8.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
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Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
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